lion-eating poet in the stone den
by ahyeon
Summary: Before he was Chase Young, he was Yong Huai Tian. And this was his story.
1. Chapter 1

_Under the veil of silence, an old dragon ghosts his claws over aged parchment. His old eyes scanning its content as the inks shift down over the edges like a bubbling painting._

 _A cold breeze creeps in through the open window, he lays his head against the pile of hoarded scraps._

 _On the scroll is a face he hasn't seen in centuries._

 _The inscriptions paint voices in his head._

 _A pop sounds besides him, the dragon closes his eyes one final time as another curiously scans over the scroll, absently petting the dragon with a fondness akin to muted depression._

 _He dreams of sand and a boy with black hair and eyes that cursed the world into imbalance._


	2. Chapter 2

The Master of the Rising Sun is the first 永懷畋 [ _yǒng huái tián_ ] meets upon entering the newly made temple grounds.

His family's legacy is what brings him to this mountain.

Descended from a line of war heroes and the Emperor's most trusted generals, Huai Tian is born into a family where his three older brothers are the Crown Prince's advisers and his younger siblings are the house's treasured jewels. He has gold to his name and yet somehow he still found himself shielded from that very same glory promised upon his birth.

His sire names him _Tián-_ hunter, damning him to a life of chasing and hunting in the guise of honouring a warrior spirit long forgotten. He grows into the strategies of warfare, wins countless battles and advises generals like a good man of the house of Yong.

The praise is muted.

He's left chasing for some semblance of fame and finds that _that_ too fades with time.

It is his 四哥 [ _s_ _ì gē_ , fourth older brother] who ultimately stirs his self-made prophecy.

The newly named Eon, pitches the idea to their father (- _his_ father, **_their_ ** sire): Huai Tian would leave for a year to train under the allusive xiaolin master many have whispered about, gaining a specialized skillset that Eon himself was scouted for. Eon, who has always been the best at everything - from calligraphy to martial arts - who banished himself from his own clan, claims that Yong Huai Tian is destined to be the world's greatest warrior.

Their father looks at him with disbelief but hangs onto Eon's every word.

 _(of course he would)_

Tian doesn't say a word to his older brother as they board their horses, doesn't even meet his eyes after being handed the fur coat their mother has so lovingly sewed and embroidered for her favourite son. No, his fingers don't even twitch as they race through fields and exchange boyish grins.

He is dignified enough to realize that these are gifts made for a brother who's long sworn himself to a life of detachment. A foolish wish to sway him back to a life of meaningless materialism, and he is smart enough to know this hierarchy of gifts passes down to him only out of an absence of a bond that hasn't been visited ever since Eon left the manor.

"You're not coming, _s_ _ì gē_?" The horse peaks at his fingers, his brother lets loose a nervous airy chuckle.

"This is a pilgrimage you must make alone, 阿弟 [ _a-di,_ little brother endearment]."

When an oblong head peaks out from behind a wooden pole, claiming that he's been waiting for the arrival of the dragon of -

 _(the ink blots, eyes close but the stain continues to flow through the motions of the story)_

Yong Huai Tian nods and follows him deeper into the temple.

When the voices give him his new name (one that is worthy of a warrior, flowing off his tongue a dialect- no- a language he has not heard before), he accepts it graciously.

This name, however, weighs too heavily on him and Master Dashi allows him to keep his own until he feels he is ready.

"You have all the time in the world, young dragon." The older man says to him after the ceremony, his fingers pressing against his shoulder- a touch more welcome than everything that has came out of Eon's mouth in those past four days.

"Thank you, 师傅[ _shīfù_ , master]."

Yong Huai Tian takes the xiaolin vows shortly after. Swearing himself to this righteous life but doesn't take the vow of celibacy.

 _The older monks might still be fuming about this act of rebellion_ , he writes to Eon out of habit before crumbling the paper up and throwing it into the fire, _but as promised I am only here for the year._

His hand falters over the open flames.

Staring with a heavy heart before turning his attention back to the small table he cleared his dinner from.

The black ink stares at him back, rippling ominously in the silence of the mountain.


	3. Chapter 3

The year passes and Huai Tian stays as a Dragon Apprentice.

The messengers sent from his father's envoy start to wan in numbers, their pleas grow less urgent in the transition into the winter months. Tian has long grown used to the frigid breeze that plagues the mountain but the Yong messengers have not. He can see it in their eyes the moment they give up on their master's latest wayward son. He doesn't give it much thought– at least they held out longer than his own si-ge.

Besides, the only thing waiting for him in that lonely manor is the empty congratulatory comments from his kin.

Yong Huai Gong on the other hand is sure to not be as easily pleased with his sudden reappearance.

Tian, however, is not scared of his father's retribution.

Monk 莞 [ _Guǎn_ ] suggests otherwise.

"Perhaps, you do not return and stay as a full xiaolin monk?" Is the semi-formed question he asks after Dashi sends them off after training. The fully shaven man lays beside him in the grass, feet spread apart and staring at the clouds.

Unlike him, _Guǎn_ fully embraces his role as the dragon of -

 _(the ink blots again and a sigh rings out before the spill recedes upon itself to form a story ongoing)_

Bearing both dragon title and his new name, _Guǎn_ is one of the first to be granted his element among his fellow apprentices. Surprisingly, he is not the first to fully master it but it goes enough to show that this is the only place Tian would be treated as an equal and not anything less.

Tian makes a humming noise as the sounds of Dashi training the other two apprentices echoes through the courtyard.

"Am I not enough as I am ?"

Is the reply he decides on but he knows the answer before Guǎn' _s_ smiling eyes has a chance to sharpen into something sagely.

With a kick, he launches himself up to his feet and helps the monk up. The two of them have barely even made it past their boyhood days yet here they are talking like two old men over a bottle of ricewine. A wicked grin stretches upon his handsome face, he relaxes into a fighting stance and Guǎn does the same.

Huai Tian is smart enough not to count his worth among the achievements of others after all.


	4. Chapter 4

A few months pass after that, Huai Tian grows in confidence of his skill and ascends to the same rank as their master and Guǎn follows soon after.

He develops his own signature move- Repulse the Monkey, in the midst of a battle against the Heylin Witch Wuya. A strange woman who seems to hold an even stranger grudge against their Master.

With all the years he spent outside his childhood home, he's never seen skin like hers. The locks that frame past her angled face is a feature to behold. She is a curiosity Tian wants to poke at like a child to a toad, and he can see it in Guǎn's eyes that he does as well. But they both know better than be tempted by the world's endless wonders.

She is, after all, not the only new development in his life.

"畋弟 [ _tian-di_ , little brother Tian, a brotherly endearment], what is plaguing you?" Guǎn, through the years has been more of a brother to him than Eon has ever been, picks up on his hesitance one day after Dashi sends them on a wild goose chase after his newest creation. "Are you unwell?"

Tian closes his eyes.

"I am fine, 莞哥 [ _guan-ge_ , older brother Guan, brotherly endearment for someone who is older]." The words carve through the noise smoothly, as if Dashi hadn't just cloned himself and is currently occupying himself(s) with the total destruction of the temple. Guan only gives him a quiet look before they continue on wrangling them up.

He doesn't need to tell him that he hasn't had someone to call brother for a long time.


	5. Chapter 5

Eon returns to the temple in the beginnings of his fourth Spring.

At first, he does not know what to make of it.

Tian, now one of the youngest masters next to Dashi himself, is at first conflicted at what his presence would bring upon his life here.

He is not scared of being overshadowed. He is not concerned over what his brother has been getting himself up to in the past six months of his wandering. He is not in the very least worried about the delicate balance that lays between his brother's arrival and the current war against the Heylin.

Guan speaks to him after the feast held in his honor, away from the festivities and loud bouts of laughter and away from Dashi who is riddling the older ex-Yong with stories of his students. He sits next to him, silent. The two wordlessly listening to the world around them.

The mountain is filled with the chorus of joyous voices and sounds; the instruments his brother brings hold the monks' attention with rapt curiosity and even now he can still hear the younger children's loud singing ringing through his ears. There are weirder things in this world Tian has now experienced, and yet, it is not this that holds his current state of mind.

Eventually it isn't even Guan who breaks the silence- it's Dashi's dragon Dojo who does.

"Brothers, what's wrong?" The green serpent asks, slithering across the grass before winding himself around the back of Tian's neck. He does not comment on the accumulated fat weighing against his braid from the feast, instead he lets out a long sigh that is unfit of a monk of his stature.

Dojo is warm and a comforting presence. Alongside Dashi, the two are the first he's bonded with since climbing the mountain. Dashi, who treats him less of a student and more like a brother bordering father. And Dojo, who immediately takes to his master's two beloved students and gives them a tour through the constellations on the nights they cannot fall asleep.

"I am conflicted," he confesses, unease leaking in waves the longer the silence grows between them. Dojo makes a small noise akin to a whimper but he continues, fearing if he does not let go of these conflictions then they will weigh him down in the future. "Eon and I used to be close. I do not know what we are now..."

Once upon a time, there was a Yong Huai Tian looked up to his talented _si-ge_. The manor always buzzed whenever he'd come home from lessons or guard duty. His older brother, though not as spectacular as their 大哥[da ge, eldest brother (to be born)], had a sort of charisma to him that attracted crowds and attention. His smile set the heaviest minds at ease- Eon had always been the one to calm their father down. And surprisingly enough, it was Huai Tian who the jewel of the house chose to dote on the most.

The memories of the two sneaking into the kitchen to steal steamed buns still weighed on his conscious. He remembered the smells and the schemes, the careful whispers and the adrenaline coursing through their systems every time the Head Maid threatened to reveal their presences. He remembers Eon tutoring him on his brush stroke, watching 阿姨 [ _Ā-yí_ , aunt] play the guzheng. He remembers New Years and the Ghost Festivals, the Dragon Boat Races and the nights spent sore beyond belief but not tired enough to fall asleep.

"Brother, perhaps it is time to think less of him as a brother and more as a fellow monk." Guan murmurs only to be hushed by Dojo. He backtracks in silence before he decides that he has the right words this time, "路遥知马力，日久见人心. [ _lù yáo zhī mǎ lì, rì jiǔ jiàn rén xīn_ (as distance tests a horse's strength, so does time reveal a person's real character)]"

"I've had my whole life to learn what Eon was capable of..." He snorts, " _da-ge_ couldn't have changed all that much."

"You haven't been separated for a time as long as this. Absence makes the heart grow fonder after all."

He does not voice out how that was what he was scared of.

Instead, he closes his eyes and hopes the firecrackers could mask his beating heart.


	6. Chapter 6

The first time he meets Loniani-Nui, he is with Eon.

It's a moment that he will never forget.

And one he wishes, centuries later, would stop coming back to haunt him.

The mountain split the sunset just beyond her. She lands in an eruption of dust and gold. The skyglow painting her form with strokes alike an engraving lost in the Crown Prince's prized garden.

Dragons claim the skies all around them, screaming songs and performing a cacophony of stunts. Huai Tian doesn't care to take note of what his brother's expression is. Nor does he care to take note of where the other monks are. Their beastly symphony just barely masquerades the loud pounding of his heart as the woman before them takes another step out of the amber light.

Clothed in robes of gold and red, she looks every bit a royal like her brethren before her. Crowned and smiling a smile that would make even the maddest of men renounce the world, Loniani-Nui is the most beautiful thing Yong Huai Tian has ever laid his eyes on.

She is also the most terrifying.


End file.
